Golden-crowned Sparrow 367 



Golden-crowned Sparrow. Zonotrichia coronata. 



A.O.U. Checklist no 557 — Colorado Records — Osburn 93, p. 212 ; 

 Cooke 97, p. 102 ; Warren 09, p. 33. 



Description. — Male — Top of the crown golden-yellow, bounded in 

 front and on either side by a pair of black bands extending to the nape ; 

 occiput, sides of the head and throat ashy-grey ; upper-parts brown ; 

 the back streaked with black ; tips of the middle and greater coverts 

 white, forming two distinct wing-bands ; below ashy to brownish- 

 grey, nearly white on the abdomen. Length 7-10 ; wing 3-20 ; tail 

 3-0 ; culmen -50 ; tarsas -93. 



The female closely resembles the male ; the young birds have the 

 head brown flecked with dusky and a wash of golden on the crown, but 

 hardly any indication of the black side-bands at first. 



Distribution. — Breeding in Alaska ; south in winter along the Pacific 

 coast as far as Lower California and straggling eastwards to Nevada 

 and Colorado. 



There are only two records for Colorado : Osburn observed a small 

 flock of this species in the winter of 1889, in thickets along the Big 

 Thompson near Loveland, mixed with flocks of the Gambel Sparrow 

 on February 23rd ; and Frey obtained a young male at Salida on April 

 19th, 1908, now in the Colorado College Museum. 



White-throated Sparrow. Zonotrichia albicolUs. 



A.O.U. Checklist no 558 — Colorado Records — Beckham 87, p. 122 ; 

 Morrison 89, p. 37 ; H. G. Smith 96, p. 76 ; Cooke 97, pp. 103, 166. 



Description. — Male — Crown with a median white band separating 

 two lateral black bands, these again separated from a black postocular 

 band by a superciliary stripe, yellow anteriorly, white posteriorly ; 

 rest of the upper-parts brown, more reddish and streaked with black 

 on the middle of the back ; wing-coverts tipped white, forming a double 

 wing-bar ; edge of the wing pale yellow ; below ashy-grey, paler on the 

 abdomen, and a well defined white patch on the throat margined laterally 

 with a narrow black rictal streak. Length 6-5 ; wing 2-8 ; tail 2-75 ; 

 culmen 40 ; tarsus -88. 



The female is very similar, but rather duller and slightly smaller ; 

 the young bird has the head markings ill-defined, of dark and light 

 brown and no yellow eye-stripe ; the chin-patch is indistinct and the 

 breast slightly streaked with dusky. 



Distribution. — Eastern North America, breeding from Massachusetts 

 and eastern Montana northwards to Hudson Bay and Labrador ; 

 south in winter to Florida and Texas. 



The White-throated Sparrow is a rare straggler to Colorado during 

 the autumn migration. It has been recorded on three occasions only : 



